Sly Fox Brewery introduces topless cans at Citizens Bank Park

POTTSTOWN — When fans plant their cans in the seats at Citizens Bank Park for today’s Phillies home opener, they’ll be able to celebrate a win — or, heaven forbid, cry into their beers over a loss — with a unique beer, in a unique can, made possible only by the unique thinking of Pottstown’s premier craft brewer.

Citizens Bank Park will be the only place this summer you can get Sly Fox Brewery’s popular Pikeland Pils pilsner in a new wide-mouth can designed to make the most of what a beer has to offer, according to Brian O’Reilly, the company’s brewmaster.

That’s because Sly Fox is the first brewery in North America to utilize the innovative 360 Lid beverage can technology developed by Crown Holdings, Inc.

Because the entire lid of the can is removable, it provides the best way to enjoy beer’s aroma as well as its taste, O’Reilly explained.

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“The problem with any can or bottle is if it has a small opening, there is no way to smell the beer,” O’Reilly said.

“There are really only four basic tastes, bitter, sweet, salty and sour,” said O’Reilly. “But with smell, you can have so many more; grass, citrus, woody smells and you need to smell a beer. This top opens up all the flavor.”

“This technology allows the full flavor and aroma of the beer to hit the drinker’s senses and makes the can an even more appealing package for outdoor activities and situations where you want to be able to move around and sip your beer easily,” he said.

Beverage cans offer another key benefit: sustainability.

Metal is 100 percent recyclable and infinitely recyclable, meaning it can be reused again and again with no degradation in quality.

The full aperture end created for the brewery’s ninth canned offering, Helles Golden Lager, as well as Pikeland Pils cans takes sustainability one step further by using 10 percent less metal than traditional beverage ends making cans even more environmentally friendly.

Although the new can design will be available to the general public for Helles, you will only be able to drink Pikeland Pils from the new topless can at a Phillies game.

“So think about it. You’re at the stadium and you want to carry three plastic cups of beer back to your seats for your friends, you know they’re kind of squishy and you have to hope you don’t bump into anyone,” O’Reilly said. “I think it will be much easier to carry three cans.”

“It’s also a lot quicker to pull the can top off even than using a tap and the cans are lighter than a bottle,” he said, listing the many advantages the company sees in this new technology.

The arrangement came about because of Sly Fox’s relationship with Aramark, the company which runs the concessions at Citizen’s Bank Park.

“We were a little busy last year opening our new brewery, but this year we contacted the folks over there and they put Pikeland Pils on the list,” O’Reilly said.

“We wanted to introduce the Helles with the 360 lid, but we figured if we only served the Pils with it down at Citizen’s Bank Park, we would avoid confusion and expose the can design to a whole new audience,” he said. “It’s a fun way to promote it and the timing was right.”

About the Author

Evan Brandt has worked for The Mercury since November 1997. His beat includes Pottstown, the surrounding townships and the Pottstown and Pottsgrove school districts, as well as other varied general topics like politics, the environment and education. Reach the author at ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
or follow Evan on Twitter: @PottstownNews.